As the fall of Saigon looms, master spy George Smiley must outmaneuver
his Soviet counterpart on a battlefield that neither can afford to lose.

The mole has been eliminated, but the damage wrought has brought the
British Secret Service to its knees. Given charge of the gravely compromised
Circus, George Smiley embarks on a campaign to uncover what Moscow Centre most
wants to hide. When the trail goes cold at a Hong Kong gold seam, Smiley
dispatches Gerald Westerby to shake the money tree. A part-time operative with
cover as a philandering journalist, Westerby insinuates himself into a war-torn
world where allegiances—and lives—are bought and sold.

Brilliantly plotted
and morally complex, The Honorable Schoolboy is the second installment
of John le Carré’s renowned Karla trilogy and a riveting portrayal of
post-colonial espionage.

Quotes & Awards

Not a page of this book is without intelligence and grace.The New York Times

Energy, compassion, rich and overwhelming sweep of character and action…one of the finest English novels of the seventies.The Times (UK)

All the good things are there: the Balkan complexities of plot; the Dickensian profusion of idiosyncratic characters; and above all, le Carré’s glistening social observation.Time

“Not a page of this book is without intelligence and grace.”

New York Times

“Energy, compassion, rich and overwhelming sweep of character and
action…one of the finest English novels of the seventies.”

Times (London)

“His command of detail is staggering, his straightforward, unaffected
prose is superb…Wonderful.”

Sunday Times (London)

“Le Carré has once again elevated the possibilities of the spy novel.”

Newsweek

“All the good things are there: the Balkan complexities of plot; the Dickensian profusion of idiosyncratic characters; and above all, le Carré’s glistening social observation.”

Time

“Narrator Michael Jayston deftly handles the cast of Secret Service administrators, and in his characterization of their boss, George Smiley, we hear their powerful, yet benevolent, all-knowing father figure.”

AudioFile

“If le Carré is the Henry James of spy novelists, firing more nuances than bullets, this is his Golden Bowl—dense, hard, and gleaming on the outside, dark within, and worth possessing whatever the price.”

Kirkus Reviews

Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1977

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger Award in 1977

A New York Times Bestseller

Listener Opinions

by Andrew Thompson | 2/17/2014

" Another absorbing tale of espionage and the men who perform it. I like Le Carre's George Smiley books. The harsh, furtive world the characters inhabit is well portrayed: it's not one I would like, where the facade of good cheer and civility can crumble into violence and betrayal at any moment. Le Carre did work for one of the intelligence services but his career was ended by Kim Philby's betrayal. I guess one of the things I like about these books is that the morally ambiguous world of the Circus and Karla seems so plausible, though one does have to wonder if MI6 really does have a staff of so few people. "

by Alan | 2/14/2014

" A masterpiece . I particularly love the descriptions of people such as ' she walked through leaving a vapour trail of gin'. "

by Michele | 2/11/2014

" A slow-burn of a book. "

by Jude Brigley | 2/6/2014

" Having a bit of a Le Carre fest. I quite enjoyed it. the time period is interesting and it kept my interest up to the last section where I thought the plot was a bit too creaking. "

" A waste of time. Awful writing, awful story. The second part of the Triology of Smiley - Karla of cold war era , this book sucks. That such bad story telling was sandwitched between two of the best cold war spy novels "Tinker tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People" makes it unforgivable. "

Qiana | 1/26/2014

" I really enjoyed this book up until the last quarter of it. One of the main characters (I won't say who to prevent spoilers) just seemed to have completely lost it. I couldn't understand his motivation for some things and the things/people he was worrying about I just couldn't feel sympathetic toward. It was very frustrating because it was a drawback from an otherwise great book. "

Geoffrey | 1/14/2014

" Most disappointing of the trilogy. Could have been much better executed. "

Tatiana | 12/26/2013

" A tad confusing at first but impossible to put down. And once you get the hang of it, absolutely amazing! "

Nora | 12/21/2013

" I got more into this one than Tinker Tailor; good one to take on a trip. "

Thomas Boyle | 12/15/2013

" Another triumph "

J.M. Leitch | 11/22/2013

" Le Carre at his best. Absolutely. "

Waqas Qazi | 10/4/2013

" Jerry Westerby, who made a small appearance in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy reappears in full force as The Honorable Schoolboy. Standard John Le Carre prose: slow, meandering, and good. "

Carlos | 5/22/2013

" Now that is a long read! Le Carre's prose carries it, though, as two separate stories unfold in parallel, only to diverge and clash at the very end. Enigmatic and labyrinthine in the best Le Carre tradition, a wonderful book. "

" I love the earlier Le Carre. This takes place just after Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It takes a while (and some flipping back to previous pages) to pick up on nicknames and such, but it's a fun read. "

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